A Month Of Heidi

When I picked up Heidi from Basset Rescue in June 2011, they thought she was a year and a half old but wasn't sure. They had rescued her from an animal shelter with no papers, and no idea what her age was. That estimate was from one of their vets during her initial check-up. So I unofficially put her birth date December 2009. In her recent annual check-ups since we have moved, the vets here think she is older than 11 years old. Compared to Stella who turned 11 years old this past summer, Heidi looks at least a couple of years older. Hard to say. I do know she moves slower, a little stiff when she stands after sleeping but can still do the .62 mile walk with Stella. She enjoys sniffing everything as we walk. The camera is never taken on those walks because they are on their own leash and I don't have enough hands to hold a camera. She has always been the perfect house dog. Here she is in the month of September 2020.

Stella's A Lot More Active Today

I'm not sure what it is but with today being a little halfway over, all of us are on very low energy with siestas even before 1pm. Maybe it was all the activity yesterday on Sadie's birthday that caught up with us. It's going to be very hard to create any kind of suspense and drama in this post.

The first walk of the day started a little after 8am. Once again for the 3rd day in a row Stella stood on "Winston's Patio" and contemplated if she was going or not. I was pretty sure by the way she looked that she would stay behind this morning.

By following her new morning routine, she walked along the side of the house before turning up under the shade, where normally she has been finding her spot to pee ... but this morning she had to do more thinking about her plans for today.

By the time Sadie and I were almost on the first turn, I was pretty sure that Stella would stay behind and we would catch her on the way back over by the neighbor's woods.

It was quite a shock as I turned to do a final check on her before I made the first turn around the corner of the woods ... that I saw Stella not only coming toward us through the tall white flowers ... but she was trotting to catch up!!

The times between her trots seem like months and may only be weeks ... anyway it was good to see just how much energy she had this morning.

She ran as close as she could by my knee and kept on trotting to catch up with Sadie. I could already feel how hot the sun was today ... yet by 1:30pm the AC had not automatically turned on and the house was still cool from last night.

With a surprising rain last night around 1am, plus the normal heavy morning dew, the field was really wet ... I could see a lot of new worn paths from deer moving in the pre-dawn hours. The hounds reacted as if all the scents were brand new.

Stella tried a couple of times to sneak away and head north. Each time I yelled "over here" she would trot in our direction. I guess she is feeling better and is just trying to test me to see if I am paying attention.

Sadie is showing us just how wet the field was this morning. She doesn't care about that either ... she loves to walk and track scent.

For the 3rd time during the half mile walk, Stella trotted at a pretty good pace to catch us. Hopefully this is a sign that she is on her way back to being like her old self and more energized.

Another attempt getting caught veering toward the neighbor's woods, yet she came my direction when called.

Old wire fencing from the 1940s still hangs on three different fence posts but is now embedded in the trees. I mowed the whole yard yesterday an inch higher than the last time. Not all of it needed cut but at least it's all the same height and a lot greener.

Heidi was outside long enough after her lunch that I was able to take a couple of photos of her. She is almost getting fat now and that is quite a switch from the last two years.

I guess Stella is like most of us after a holiday meal ... too much food and it's siesta time. She loves sleeping in the sunshine even if she gets too hot soon afterward and wants to go back inside.

Heidi even found it nice enough outside to soak up some sun. Not scorching hot, low humidity, a little wind, no bugs or mosquitoes ... a perfect day.

Of course Sadie had things to do and places to go ... she never finds time to lay in the sun ... that is wasting her time.

Last might when I thought Spring had arrived early, I raked out the roots of wild bushes that had grown on the left side of the fence post and trees ... down that bank. I planted some grass seed, only to have it go back below freezing by the end of the week.

I planted more seed, only to see enough rain that I could see it running down the bank. I had doubts that any of that grass seed would grow. So I planted the last of the bag I had left and let nature take it's course. So far so good, except for the ridge there in the middle, where I either missed spreading seed or it was washed away.

A few years ago all of that was overgrown brush, ragweed, and small saplings ... now it's the best part of the yard.

With all the hounds deep in sleep and it's not even 2pm, I have doubts that much more will happen today. I am going to grab my book and head outside for some reading along with a tall glass of fresh ice tea. We will get another hound walk in later this afternoon.

Sometimes it's just too fast paced here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Take It Easy Today

I almost caught Heidi laying in the backyard enjoying the sunshine right after her lunch but by the time I had the camera and in focus, she was sprinting for the door to go back inside. It was an afternoon where the AC was needed but pretty close to opening the windows instead because of the strong breezes cooling the day down.

Later around 7pm the bloodhounds and I wandered around the backyard, enjoying the shaded area on the north side under the mahogany trees with about 15° cooler and those strong breezes. While Stella was busy scratching, Sadie and I snuck (walked) off to the north side of the yard.

Stella evidently missed us moving that direction because once she walked over to where we were standing while she was scratching herself she became confused about where we were or had gone.

She even thinks Sadie and I have gone back inside and left her alone.

Once I start calling her name from the north side of the yard, she thinks I am calling her name from inside the kitchen door and starts walking that way. She has a great humorous personality.

She finally glanced up and saw where we were but continued to the door ... she had enough of the hot weather.

While wandering around my backyard I took some pictures of nothing in particular and views from different angles not used before.

It looks like a light dinner (salad & ice tea), and then watching the IndyCar race at the Texas Motor Speedway in a few minutes. That will keep me busy until the Reds game in Los Angeles that starts 10:10pm local time and after that another day of fast paced retirement will be logged into the books.

It's been a nice day today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Is Alive & Well

Heidi is alive and doing very well. She is still waiting for that promised bath. She thinks Saturday morning will be the best time for that. In the meantime, here she is making her daily after lunch trip to the front yard and then a long stroll up the drive.

The High Temps Hit The Hounds

Heidi snuck off to one of her favorite places after lunch. She turned down an offer to go on the walk and did not move an inch during the 30 minutes we were gone.

Things went as planned this morning after I posted the morning post. The load of laundry went smooth and for the 2nd time in a row after not cooperating the time before that, the old wash machine went through the spin cycle without a hitch. Maybe that belt realigned itself.

The hounds were almost to the point of revolt when they did not get fed lunch when they wanted but I'm not going to feed them lunch at 10:30am. Don't you think that is a little early for lunch??

So by noon they were more than happy to run to their bowls of kibble. As always, all of us headed outside ... Stella found her a spot while Sadie needed to scratch her back by rolling on the hot grass. You can barely see her legs in the air on the right side of the picture.

But they wanted more, not food ... they wanted to go on their walk right now, and not wait for a few hours. Stella looked at Sadie for the call.

Sadie was already giving me her stare down but I knew they didn't realize just how hot it was. I could really feel the heat for the first time this spring. I found out later it was 85°.

I checked with Heidi to make sure she didn't want to go. Walking was not an option with her today. She had moved into one of her favorite spots out front and was going to enjoy the quiet sunshine for as long as she could.

Needless to day, Sadie was more than thrilled when she saw I was walking toward the field with my camera in hand. She went from jumping up in excitement to hitting me in my left knee in a full speed sprint.

Stella did follow us this afternoon. I didn't think there was a chance of that when I saw her through the camera view finder. The hotter it is the slower she moves.

Sadie was sure she must have missed something in her investigation in this same area this morning. She ran directly to that spot and started her search all over again. She was going in figure 8's all over those bushes to the right of her.

She glanced over at Stella for a little help, but Stella was heading off into the opposite direction, her nose to the ground.

Since I couldn't be in two different directions at once, I chose to go with Sadie and let Stella go where she wanted. Sadie had stopped and glanced in the direction of the gully so I needed to make sure that was not going to happen.

Stella didn't get far. It is another one of the stops she does not miss. The times I have walked over to see what is so good to her, I don't see anything but some mashed wet grass ... maybe the deer scat is gone by the time I check.

By this point on the walk I thought the hounds would probably sleep the rest of the afternoon. It was hot and both of them were dragging now on the walk. Sadie was already panting before we got back and Stella put it in first gear to finish the walk. I was beginning to think she might not make it back to the house until after dark.

No matter what ... Stella will always go at her speed.

After being on the walk for almost 30 minutes, I stepped out front to see if Heidi was there. The only thing she had moved were her eyelids, which were almost closed when I snapped the shutter.

The bloodhounds and I went back inside. They wanted water and I wanted some ice tea. Heidi stayed out front in that one spot for almost an hour. By the time I finished folding clothes, she had moved to the backyard and sat in the sun for another 30 minutes.

With everything finished inside it was time to go outside and enjoy the hot sunshine. Sadie was back to investigating the whole backyard inch by inch while Stella headed way out into the field.

Sadie rarely lays down in the backyard and won't just sit in one place. With her DNA, she cannot sit still outside and is almost in constant motion. She was only walked less than an hour before this but ran to go back outside.

I put the book I was reading in my chair and walked out into the field to bring Stella back. If she was going to roam I needed to put her on the tether today. It wasn't a minute after I returned to my chair that she walked into the yard, found her sleeping spot and took a short nap, tether and all.

The thing is ... If I were to take the tether off of her while she slept, she would wake up and then wander out to the field again.

It wasn't 15 minutes later that Stella decided it was too hot to sleep outside. I could see her panting and I knew a long string of drool would not be far behind. I also decided the gnats had won another war but Sadie wasn't concerned about the heat nor the gnats.

The urge hit for a Z4 drive. The hounds must have heard the keys when I walked in because Heidi ran for the couch and both bloodhounds headed for the dog bed in the corner of the bedroom ... they were more than anxious to sleep in cooler conditions.

After my 42 mile loop where I didn't go faster than 60mph longer than a minute, the sky was filling up with gray clouds from the west. Just like they said it would happen last night on the local tv weather. I did not have all the yard to mow but half of the backyard was tall enough to mow and if I waited the next three days for the rain to stop I would not be mowing the yard but baling the yard like hay.

So, a pretty productive day today considering it's been a week or more of procrastination. Next on the hit list will be giving Heidi a bath and trimming nails of all the hounds. That might take place in the morning but I'm pretty flexible when it comes to changing plans.

Looking at the weather radar it looks like the storms will be here later tonight.

I can't believe the week is half over here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.